Research Interests

I am an ecologist trained in quantitative veterinary epidemiology. My research focused on creating epidemiological information that can be used in the development and design of control and surveillance strategies against zoonotic and/or emerging pathogens circulating in vector and animal (livestock or wildlife) populations. This effort has centred on:

developing epidemiological and population dynamics models as a basis for stratifying (in terms of space and/or time) surveillance activities, quantitatively assessing the efficiency of control strategies, identifying biological and ecological key processes.

I previously worked at Massey University (New Zealand), at CIRAD/INRA in the Caribbean and at the Royal Veterinary College of London, where I developed various statistical and simulation models to better understand the ecology and epidemiology of various pathogen, vector species and disease reservoir species.

I started at the University of Edinburgh in October 2011 and am a research fellow with EPIC – the Scottish Government’s Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks. My work within EPIC is primarily in the evaluation of potential disease control strategies and policies for use in the event of an outbreak of an exotic animal disease like FMD or classical swine fever. I am currently a co-coordinator of the Topic 4: “Analyses of Potential Disease Control Options” in EPIC.

I am also involved in numerous national and international collaborations, particularly working on developing models to inform control and preventive activities against disease such as African swine fever and dengue in Africa and Southeast Asia, and highly pathogenic avian influenza in the USA.

Qualifications

I received a Master in Biological Modelling from Joseph Fournier University, Grenoble (France), a Post Graduate Diploma in Preventive Veterinary Medicine and a PhD in Epidemiology from the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences of Massey University (New Zealand).